For the poorest South Africans, 1 April 2017 may indeed be April Fool’s Day as they return empty-handed from SASSA collection points, when the contract of Cash Paymaster Services (CPS), distributors of social grants on behalf of SASSA, comes to an end on 31 March.
The triumphant announcement of the 2016 matric results by the Minister and Department of Basic Education has subsequently been tempered as the harsh searchlight of reality has dawned.
The Day of Reconciliation was somewhat of a latecomer to the slate of negotiated and agreed on public holidays in the new South Africa.
On 23 November 2016, Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) in the National Assembly called the Minister of Social Development, the Auditor-General and members of the Hawks, together with the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA), to a hearing on the weighty matter of irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure.
On 16 November each year, since 1995, members of the UN pause (or not) to reflect on the meanings of tolerance and its destructive converse, intolerance.
In the 10th Annual Helen Joseph Lecture last month, Prof Njabulo Ndebele, the Chancellor of the University of Johannesburg, mused about the burning earlier this year by UCT Rhodes-Must-Fall activists of portraits and commemorative objects symbolising the university’s “colonial” past. One of the objects was a plaque honouring Jan Christian Smuts. At first, Ndebele was shocked by this “burning of memory”.
However, after he had ‘mediated’ his thoughts, he saw the incident in a different light. It represented instead a clash between two historic periods – on the one hand “the legacy of the history of conquest” represented by Smuts – and on the other “the nascent moments” of the history that had begun in 1994.
The entire country has been watching the drama of student protests over the past few months. Such widespread scenes of protest have not been seen in South Africa since the 1976 Soweto uprising. Historically white universities and their management are particularly unfamiliar with the phenomenon of ongoing student unrest and violence. The damage to property is already estimated at almost R1000m.
What are the causes of these phenomena? And what drives the new youth movement?
What is wonderful about Heritage Day (as one of the “new” holidays in the not so new South Africa) is that we can look back and celebrate what we have achieved over the past 22 years. For many it will go back further than 22 years – to our cultural and traditional past – that is also part of our heritage, individually and collectively. “Heritage” means different things to different people.
Some will say that in 2016 there is nothing to celebrate – among them are angry students, persistent grumblers and disillusioned poor people. They will point out our problems at the political level, government level and Zuma level; the student riots and arson; the Springboks, Bafana Bafana and the Proteas’ poor or mediocre performances; the weak economy; unemployment, poverty and inequality; and the drought and high food prices.
The renaming of streets and places must be handled with the greatest sensitivity. All South Africans should feel that they and their cultures are fully represented in street and place names. The Constitution declares that South Africa belongs to us all, united in our diversity.
The recent Constitutional Court judgment in City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality v AfriForum regarding the renaming of streets in Pretoria shows how important it is for all sides to deal with contentious issues arising from our deeply divided past with the greatest sensitivity. The judgment has implications that far transcend the question of geographic place names.
